The most important things in life are breathing, sleeping, eating, and letting go of what you don’t need.
It really works to use the right words for the situation. ‘Yes’ ‘down’ and ‘open’, for instance, are great words, chants, guides for a birth.
Love at first sight is possible, in context. When I first saw her, I saw my whole lineage in her strong body swimming through the tub towards her mama. I started crying because love opened me.
There are ways to be strong even when you can do nothing on your own, even when you need many hands to hold you. This child has dignity, as do her strong and vulnerable parents.
The most radical gift one human can offer another is encouragement to listen to themselves, their bodies, their own knowing.
The beauty of children encouraged to feel – it’s a perfect tender beauty. Watching my nephew and niece fiercely miss their mama as she attends to their new sister, and be able to say so, is emotionally thrilling.
Some feelings are so big they require me to go outside. I keep going to bring in more wood so I can smile in the snow and let my body move around all this massive love in my heart.
Anxiety is not useful in miracle work.
It takes about two hours to heat enough water on a stove to fill a birth tub and have it around 96°.
An apron with pockets is a great uniform for a birth.
Delegation, done well, is an act of kindness. People of all ages and abilities long to be useful.
Patience is a gorgeous feeling. To actually feel unrushed at a cellular level, not urgent in your soul, is healing.
There are so many things we don’t understand. Lately I’ve been worrying about mortality, beginning to feel rushed and anxious about my life and my philosophies. But the patience generated as the baby was coming was a balm. She didn’t know where she was coming to, but still it was time to move beyond the known world. It was an active patience, she was not pushed only, she was working too, finding the way.
I have to think on this more, this active patience, doing my work in abundant time, with a respect for ripeness.
For the moment I am inspired by remembering my central work is like hers, to breathe/meditate, to sleep/rest, to eat/nourish, and to let go/have faith.
Welcome to my new teacher, Mairead Irene Brown Conway.